The brothers Jorgeson were probably George (Georg or Jorge) and Peter Jorgeson before they immigrated, but in the Scandinavian countries there would have been a third name--the farm name where they were from. Scandinavians always had three names--their own first name (which was determined by the order of their birth, after the male grandfather, the female grandfather etc, or in the case of females, the female grandmothers etc.) followed by their father's name with son or dau attached as their middle name (Jorge's son would be Jorgeson), followed by their farm name (as Himle or Hilla etc). It would look like they dropped their farm name, as was often the case, and George maybe changed his 1st name from Jorge. If you can find any trace of the farm name, it is comparatively easy to trace them in Scandinavia, as records were required to be kept, and you always know the first name of the father, and often the grandfather because of the naming pattern. Checking out the names of the immigrants children (in this case both George and Peter) often is helpful, as there will be similarities if they continued the old country naming system, as most of them did, at least for a generation, but you do need to know birth order. If you know approximate year of immigration, look for George (Jorge) and Peter Jorgeson something else in immigration lists. Check for APPLICATION for naturalization papers--this should give the place they came from. The naturalization papers themselves may not. These may be held by the county or state, depending on where they lived. Check for land records--some may give where they were from , particularly if they received land patents and they had to prove citizenship. And check area church records where Scandinavians belonged. Mine belonged to a Norwegian Lutheran church, and records were kept in Norwegian with full Norwegian names for all family members, even though the family members did not use the farm name after immigration. Good luck in your search. Ida > George Jorgeson with his brother Peter Jorgeson. > > By the 1880 census he apparently started spelling his name as George > Jorgenson, and his brother spelled his name as Peter Jorgensen. There is > also a family story that the name was changed during Atlantic passage - but > no clue as to what it might have been before he immigrated. > > Can anyone offer any suggestions as to how I might identify his original > surname?